Writing One For The Team, For The Champions

One of my most loyal readers, (let's call him Dave), has been disappointed in me for not writing about a significant event in our lives. At least it's significant from the perspective of our recreational sports lives). We are the champions. It's that simple. Now, most of you may not have heard of our volleyball team, (The Hi-Risers), or of our league, (The Detroit Stay and Play Social Club's Wednesday Intermediate Southfield Sand Co-Ed 6's Volleyball League). But trust me, it was a challenge. We are a team consisting of players of varying volleyball experience that range in age from early 20's to late 40's and are represented by various ethnicities and occupations, but we all have one thing in common... We like to win. (And we like to drink the free beer we get from the league when we do win a match.)

We were possiblly not the most talented or physically fit team, but during the regular season, we didn't lose a single game. Being down in score never got us down as we just kept coming back. During the finals, we lost the first game convincingly, but our attitude kept us from getting down. We won the second game in a tough match through some scrappy play and more grit than the sand we played on. Great sets and digs followed mixed in with some good blocks, good hits, and occasional wicked serves got the job done, even after making some mistakes. Our skills complemented each other very well. The heat, humidity and biting bugs made conditions worse for all of us, but Game 3 was no contest as Amy, one of our ace servers led us to a convincing 15-2 win with 13 straight points!

Winning the championship also got us snazzy long-sleeved champions t-shirts which you can see us wearing in the picture below.

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Good description of what happened.

Our victory was significant in that it was one highlight of a memorable summer for me. I think as you get a bit older you really appreciate something like this more. You only get so many kicks at the can. We've seen defeat often enough to really appreciate winning. We worked hard to achieve what we did. How we did it is as much a part of it as actually doing it. It's something that only the 6 of us can understand. We defeated a very good team.
We hung in there even when the struggle was very difficult.

Atul, you seem to be willing to share events in your life with your blog family so I was surprised that you had not already written an article about our championship victory. I've known you for a while-all the way back to the days when we had a hairy softball teammate who brought chia pets as gifts for all of the girls to the last game. I know it's been hard on you to lose your Dad. Although nothing can take away the pain of your loss, I'm glad that you could be part of something good.

I'm really hoping that we can get the team together for a celebration dinner one day soon. I have a surprise commemorative item for everyone that I hope you'll enjoy.

To clarify, the last game was 15-2. Amy served 13 straight points to clinch the win. BTW, including the team photo is a nice touch.

Dave, sorry for the delay in responding to you and thanks for the comment. Yes, I do put personal things on my blog, but I'm usually not the type to boast and I wasn't sure how others on the team felt about it. But since you the captain thought it was fine, I put up the post. It was good to be part of a winning team and things like this do make life better in a sense even in times of adversity. I hope we can figure out the logistics for our dinner. I'm looking forward to the surprise gifts. I will correct the score of Game 3.

Elizabeth,
Good to see you on here again. I was going to write to you about your interview and stand-up. Expect that soon. Anyway, glad you like our shirts. I may hang mine on the wall, jersey style. :-)